[Vision2020] Poll: Monthly Churchgoers Swing Toward Obama

[Tom Hansen]

It appears that Obama is getting significantly more support from 
evangelicals than McCain. 

"They (evangelicals) are more concerned about peace and prosperity than 
they are about abortion or same-sex marriage".

This appears to be contrary to what one of Moscow's pastors has recently 
stated from his pulpit.

Hmmm.

>From USA Today at:

http://tinyurl.com/4ts9cj

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Poll: Monthly churchgoers swing toward Obama 
By Brittney Bain, Religion News Service

WASHINGTON — Significantly more monthly churchgoers are supporting the 
Democratic nominee — Sen. Barack Obama — in this year's presidential 
election than in the 2004 election cycle, according to a new poll.
Voters who attend religious services one to two times a month are 
supporting the Democratic nominee by 60%, up from 49% who supported Sen. 
John Kerry in 2004, based on a survey released Oct. 8 by the nonpartisan 
group Faith in Public Life.

"The fact that he's getting 60% of those voters shows that there has been 
a movement overall in the last four years in terms of Democratic outreach 
with religious Americans," said Amy Sullivan, whose book The Party 
Faithful examines Democrats' outreach to religious voters.

"That might be related more to economic issues than anything else this 
year, but it does show that religious voters are willing to vote for 
Democrats."

Exit polls in 2004 showed Bush won 51% of the vote among monthly 
churchgoers.

Sen. John McCain has 34% of the vote of monthly churchgoers in the survey, 
but maintains a significant advantage among voters who attend church more 
frequently. Obama has a similar advantage over McCain among those who 
attend less often.

"We took a look at one of the historically ... strongest predictors of 
votes and that's religious attendance," said Robert Jones, president of 
Public Religion Research and lead researcher and analyst for the poll.

The survey also found evidence of a generational divide between younger 
and older evangelicals, including support by younger evangelicals for a 
more active government and less conservative views on same-sex marriage.

"They (evangelicals) are more concerned about peace and prosperity than 
they are about abortion or same-sex marriage," said Michael Lindsay, 
associate professor of sociology at Rice University. "This is why things 
are different in 2008 than they were in 2004."

The survey polled 2,000 adults, and an additional 1,250 adults ages 18 to 
34, and was conducted between Aug. 28 and Sept. 19. The margin of error 
for the overall sample was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points; the margin 
of error among younger adults was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college 
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)


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